HMS Hydra (1797) (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! HMS Hydra launched in 1797 was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, armed with a main battery of twenty-eight 18-pounder guns. She was built to the design of the captured French frigate Melpomene (taken in 1794). The Hydra was commissioned in April 1797 under Captain Sir Francis Laforey. She was present at the capture and destruction of the French 36-gun La Confiante on 31 May 1798 and was anchored at the Nore on Sunday 17 May 1801 (as recorded in the journal of Captain Matthew Flinders of HMS Investigator.